Administrative burden research has contributed to improved understanding of citizens' experiences while accessing state services. However, the significance of the material infrastructure within which citizen–administrator interactions take place remains largely absent from this line of research. To help address this research gap, this article uses ethnographic data to discuss the influence of material and virtual artifacts in bureaucratic offices on the administrative burden faced by citizens accessing social services. This significance of artifacts is further unpacked along their material, symbolic, and aesthetic dimensions. Our findings suggest that the instrumentality of certain artifacts (or lack thereof) can disproportionately decrease accessibility and usability of bureaucratic spaces for certain social groups thereby augmenting their administrative burden. Moreover, artifacts symbolizing power, prestige, and administrative easing are reserved for spaces occupied by the social elite while the underprivileged groups are relegated to bureaucratic spaces characterized by a general neglect of aesthetics and symbolism of decay.

中文翻译：

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人工物治理：行政负担重要性的理论和证据

行政负担研究有助于更好地了解公民在获得国家服务时的经历。然而，公民与行政人员互动发生的物质基础设施的重要性在这一领域的研究中仍然很大程度上缺失。为了帮助解决这一研究空白，本文使用人种学数据来讨论官僚办公室中的物质和虚拟文物对公民获得社会服务所面临的行政负担的影响。文物的这种意义在其材料、象征和美学维度上得到了进一步的体现。我们的研究结果表明，某些文物的工具性（或缺乏）可能会不成比例地降低某些社会群体官僚空间的可及性和可用性，从而增加他们的行政负担。此外，象征权力、声望和行政宽松的文物被保留给社会精英占据的空间，而弱势群体则被贬低到普遍忽视美学和腐朽象征意义的官僚空间。